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Besner, a Grade 7 student at St. Lawrence Secondary School, once received a provincial plaque for her efforts in collecting hundreds of thousands of pop can tabs, and she’s been working at a new collection for the last two years, planning to have a big finale this summer during camping season and cashing in perhaps a million of them this fall.

“I want to help a kid in need,” said Besner, who isn’t sure just yet who it will be. “It’s just something I want to do, and it’s because of the involvement (of people in the community) that I’ve been able to collect so many in a short time.”

It was two springs ago when Besner, then 10, and in Grade 5 at Eamer’s Corners Public School, was presented a plaque by MPP Jim McDonell for extraordinary community service. It was for her impressive pop can tab collection that she cashed in, raising money for a friend at school who was battling cancer.

Besner at age five had started gathering pull tabs at the family campground to help raise money for kids with cancer, and it had grown to a huge collection of 900,000 — 152 pounds — worth $86 when cashed in to help her school friend.

She also challenged citizens and businesses in Cornwall to match those funds, and the call was heard – over $1,200 was raised.

Besner back in 2015 immediately announced her plan of starting another collection, and she and her mom Rebecca Besner estimate that perhaps there are as many as 900,000 of them once, again, in 14 tote boxes at home.

The goal is to get past the one-million mark this summer.

“Camping season is coming, and we want to get the word out (that the Besners are collecting),” Rebecca Besner said. “Our family has had its own health issues, and we understand (the struggles). If we can help take some of the stress away, by helping out money-wise, it’s a good thing.”

It’s been a family effort that includes Emily’s older sister Jennifer, and several people in the community, including one woman in Cornwall who’s contributed eight of the tote boxes brimming with pull tabs.

The Morrisburg Legion has pitched in with three tote boxes, and the principal at Besner’s school, Rebecca noted, has approved of people dropping off containers at St. Lawrence by pre-arranging a date and time.

Anyone interested in helping build the collection can contact the Besners by calling 613-936-1986.